Undermining Netanyahu from within
Prime Minister Netanyahu originally wanted Dan Meridor (pictured) in his 'inner cabinet' so that together with Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, they would balance the more right-leaning trio of Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon, Benny Begin and Avigdor Lieberman. Netanyahu has since added Shas' Eli Yishai to the mix, making it clear that he no longer sees the necessity for 'balance' from the center-left. After some of things that were said by Meridor on Sunday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy one has to wonder whether Meridor belongs in the inner cabinet at all. He endorsed the possibility of talking about final-status issues, such as Jerusalem, as part of those negotiations even though Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been resisting doing so, but Meridor cautioned against building expectations too high as a result.This means that Meridor - a member of Netanyahu's inner cabinet - is advocating bypassing the earlier phases of the 'road map' that require the 'Palestinians' to fight terror and going directly to final status talks. That's the formula that Olmert tried at Annapolis. It failed miserably and Netanyahu immediately rejected it upon taking office.
"Creating hopes and then frustrating them is very dangerous," Meridor warned, during a keynote address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy's fall conference.
The US has been pushing Israelis and Palestinians to start talks immediately, including on final-status issues, with Israeli and Palestinian officials making several trips to Washington in recent days, as momentum has been building following months of miscues.
Meridor described Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation at the best it's ever been, and credited the Palestinians with many of the recent improvements in the economic and security conditions in the West Bank.If there is no terror, it is because the IDF is still in Judea and Samaria arresting terrorists every single day. For Meridor - who is a member of the government and the inner cabinet - to ignore that basic fact in a public address is simply inexcusable.
"There is no terror," he said, adding, "The economic position in Judea and Samaria is improving every day."
Moreover, there is terror. I guess Meridor hasn't tried driving a car in Judea and Samaria recently.
And then Meridor came up with this inexplicable statement:
In the face of Russia's reluctance to intensify sanctions, Meridor said Moscow's participation is not a sine qua non for success.Huh? On whose side is Meridor? Surely not ours.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:27 PM
2 Comments:
Dan Meridor doesn't appear to understand what has happened just before the weekend. Fortunately, most Israeli Jews do. The only people who are going blame Israel for Goldstone is the Far Left, which has little real support in the country. I keep thinking of Haaretz's Aluf Benn's latest column listing the price of British and French support for the Jewish State on Goldstone.
What could go wrong indeed
I still wonder why the rest of the world believes Jews to be smarter than average. Meridor is one of many proofs that we are NOT.
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